Der Blogger

"Enough is enough!" "This can't go on!" "This has to stop!" These were among the comments that came through the blizzard of commentary after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County. We have heard these words before.

Wanderlust

As a travel destination, Germany has never been more popular. With tourist numbers forecast to rise for an eighth consecutive year, what is the country doing right to account for its thriving visitor numbers?

Akademia

For education experts, English language lessons have proven valuable in primary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia. But the Alternative for Germany’s state parliamentary group in NRW have a rather different view.

Essen & Trinken

Police in the city of Osnabrück had to clear crowds in front of a new döner kebab shop on Tuesday, after about 150 hungry people packed the street outside, eager to get their hands on a döner for only €0.01.

Germericana

Many Americans have German ancestors — and that's also the case for actress Meghan Markle, who will be marrying Prince Harry, himself a descendant of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a German dynasty.

Senior Austrian frat boys get ready to govern

And following October’s elections, they look closer than ever to taking it after the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), to which many of them belong, became the third biggest party in parliament.

Last month, the party agreed to enter talks on forming a coalition government with incoming chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the 31-year-old who heads the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP).

Of the FPÖ’s 51 lawmakers, a record 20 belong to a “burschenschaft” where membership is for life, and not just for university.

Among those involved in the negotiations are party leader Heinz-Christian Strache, 48, a member of the “Vandalia” fraternity who flirted with neo-Nazism in his youth but who today strongly denies any extremist sympathies.

Another is Wolfgang Zanger who in 2006 said that National Socialism, or Nazi ideology, “had its good sides”.

FPÖ negotiator Harald Stefan belongs to a fraternity that officially rejects the “fiction” of Austria as a nation. “I feel German,” he told Austrian television in 2008.

And the candidate for Federal President in the 2016 elections, Norbert Hofer, hopes to be part of the next government. Hofer is an honorary member of the Marko-Germania zu Pinkafeld fraternity.

Chaps in frats

The “burschenschaft” — or “association of chaps” — emerged in the 19th century to defend the liberal ideas that were sweeping Europe at the time, as well as pan-Germanic identity and culture.

This file photo taken on May 8, 2012 shows Austrian fraternity members taking part in a commemoration ceremony and a rally of far-right students corporations on the Day for memory to the victims of World War II, as Austria marked the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, at the Heldenplatz in Vienna.

But quite quickly, “the liberal dimension disappeared and was replaced by German nationalism and by an ever-more virulent anti-Semitism,” said political scientist Patrick Moreau.

With strict rules on “racial purity”, Jews were barred from being members even before the Nazis took power. Fraternity members would assault Jewish students and throw them out of lectures.

Despite being disbanded by the Nazis, who distrusted organisations not under their control, many members welcomed Hitler and were enthusiastic participants in the crimes of the Third Reich.

After 1945, “the fraternities reformed but not a single one of these murderers was excluded,” according to author and journalist Hans-Henning Scharsach.

‘Silent takeover’

And in recent decades, they have remained a cornerstone of Austria’s nationalist scene, and of the FPÖ, itself formed by former Nazis after World War II.

According to Scharsach, author of a recent new book on the subject, in recent years the fraternities have achieved a “silent takeover” of the party.

“When the party split in 2005, the ‘liberals’ went with (Jörg) Haider” the party’s former leader, to form a new grouping, the ill-fated BZÖ, according to former member Michael Krüger.

“It was the burschenschaft members who kept the FPÖ alive after the split,” said Bernhard Weidinger, a researcher at the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance.

The fraternities are notoriously wary of the media, saying that they are incorrectly portrayed. Several groups contacted by AFP declined to comment.

Setting the tone

With their distinctive caps, they hold their own annual Viennese ball at the imperial Hofburg palace, which regularly attracts protests that often turn violent.

“We are the new Jews,” Strache reportedly said at one such ball in 2012. He later said his comments were taken out of context.

Kultur

The German term "Heimat," often translated as "homeland," was long thought of as tacky, regressive, and even politically dubious. But since the election, German politicians across the spectrum are using it once again.

Das Kino

This month's Berlin film festival, Europe's first major cinema showcase in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein revelations, will shine a light on sexual misconduct in the industry, its director said on Tuesday.

Gesundheit

In the run-up to international World Cancer Day on Sunday, experts have said that about half of all cancer cases in Germany could be prevented by a healthier lifestyle. Across the country, around 500,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year. But experts say things like exercise could cut this figure in half. “Movement can […]